My Adventuring with Ark Minecraft Build – 7th July Update.

7th of July 2013 Update:

The main changes since the last update:

  • Extra Trees is now bundled up with Extra Bees, adding another 75 breedable tree species.
  • I’m giving the Fossil and Archaeology mod a tryout. While I’m not going to find much from it until I go out into newly generated areas, it seems stable so far.
  • Railcraft, too, has arrived late at the station. I didn’t include it originally, as I didn’t want to go overboard with tech mods, but there’s a few bits within it that I think I’m going to be wanting soon.

There’s probably not going to be too much in the way of change to my build until I make the leap to 1.6, which is going to have to wait until all the important mods have updated. Could be a while.

Worldgen

Extra Biomes XL 3.13.4 : A wide range of additional biome types to explore, as well as some new plants. I have all of the biomes disabled right now, so that my initial area will be base biomes.

Biomes O’ Plenty 0.5.5 : Another biome mod. Once again, the biomes are disabled in the main overworld, meaning I’ll only have vanilla biomes. However, when I start journeying the multiverse with Mystcraft, any biome from EBXL or BOP could make an appearance. 0.5.5 now adds biomes to the Nether dimension too.

I’m not sure I really recommend BOP at this time. The developers have been taking a very aggressive stance around not caring about mod compatibility and customisation, so it is probably a poor choice for anyone wanting to use large numbers of mods. It’s still listed here because I have it installed, and it would probably break things badly to remove it from my world.

Metallurgy 3.1.1 : Adds a wide range of additional metals, and ores. It’ll be dealing with most of the ore generating in worldgen, apart from a few from Tinker’s Construct that it doesn’t include. I’ve turned the rarity of ore up from its default settings which seem rather too generous to me.

Dungeon Pack 1.5.2 v3 : Adds a variety of structures to the land of minecraft. I have a lot of mods which add structures, so I’ve made these pretty rare. I’ve also disabled quite a few structures that I didn’t like the look of, particularly ones that float in the sky. I like my sky clear!

Ruins : More structures added to the world. Once again I’ve turned the rarity right up.

Natura 2.1 : Some new trees, and a variety of berry bushes. I particularly like the Eucalyptus tree. Now also makes significant changes to the Nether.

Wild Caves 3.0.4.2 : Adds stalactites, spiderwebs, and other decorations to caves and other underground areas. It makes spelunking a little more interesting, and usefully for me, the increase in diversity makes it harder to get lost!

Better Dungeons 1.07 by Chocolatin: Even more structures, but this time with some new enemies too. Warning: May contain pirates!

Quality of Life

Not Enough Items 1.5.2.25 : This adds a recipe search system, which becomes increasingly vital the more mods you’re using. It also has quite a few cheat options, but I shall not be using those unless its needed to recover from a serious bug. NEI requires CodeChickenCore (I’m using version 0.8.6.15), available from the same page. Its tooltip option interacts badly with certain objects from other mods I’m using, so I’ll be keeping that off most of the time.

Rei’s Minimap 3.306: Adds a minimap and full-sized map. I’ll generally be keeping this turned off, but it might sometimes be useful during videos to help viewers visualise what’s going on.

Taigore’s Inventory Saver 3: One of the more annoying things about Vanilla Minecraft is that dropped items will vanish after five minutes. That’s useful for keeping things tidy, but rather devastating if you happened to die 6 minutes away, and doesn’t really make any sense. There are some mods that simply allow you to keep your items on you when you die, but that’s a bit too cheap for my liking. Taigore’s Inventory Saver places your gear in a sack where you died, preventing it from despawning.

Travelling House v1.0 : This is a rather ingenious mod that allows to build a device which can be used to scoop up a bit of the world, and plant it down somewhere else. While the suggested use is to always have your home with you as you travel, I think it might be quite interesting to use it to kidnap NPC villagers and buildings, and bring them back to my home area to build my own village.

Enhanced Portals 2 1.0.6 : A late addition, this mod changes how how portals usually work, allowing you to use any shape, for aesthetic purposes, and more practically, allows you to connect one portal to another. This might come in very handy if I need to connect one base to another.

New Worlds!

Dimension mods can almost be total conversions, with their own creatures, resources, and recipes.

The Twilight Forest 1.18.1 : A dimly lit dimension filled with wonders. This looks pretty huge, and is very well thought of. I’m looking forward to visiting.

The Lion King Mod 1.11.2 : The mod allows you to travel to the Pridelands, a dimension filled with, I assume, amusing meerkat and warthog double-acts, where good and evil do battle in leonine form. Actually I have no idea, but it seems well made and will be fun to visit at some point.

The Lord of the Rings Mod beta 6.2 : Still very much a work in progress, this mod allows you to journey to a strange dimension of hobbits, orcs, and far too many rings to keep track of.

Mystcraft 0.10.5 by XCompWiz: If you ever played the Myst games, you’ll remember how you travelled from world to world via magical books. A skilled writer could create a new world by describing it in such a book. Mystcraft allows you to do this, allowing you to create a limitless number of dimensions to explore. This is a far from easy process, involving learning the symbols for various aspects of a world, and it is all too easy to create an unstable world at the brink of its own destruction. Exploring infinite realities is not for the faint-hearted!

Atum 0.4.3b by Shadowclaimer and Rebel Keithy : Journey to Minecraft’s version of Egypt, where the restless dead wander the endless sands for eternity.

Furniture

Enhanced Books 1.6.0 : Bookshelves!

Bibliocraft 1.3.1 by Nuchaz: More bookshelves! Also armour stands, and some other nice storage furniture. 1.3.1 has added some beautiful new light sources

Mr Crayfish’s Furniture Mod 2.8.4 : A variety of nice chairs, couches, and other furniture.

Beasties!

Given how often I managed to die to ordinary skeletons in the original series, I’m going to have to up my game to survive this lot.

Grimoire of Gaia 1.5.2 : A variety of unpleasant creatures who will be trying to kill me. GoG has its own loot drops, and some crafting recipes for them. You might even find ways to create some special villagers!

Farlanders 0.8b : A range of Endermen variants, some of whom may be friendly. Isolated Farlander buildings may sometimes be found. I ran into one of these during one of my test sessions. It ended badly for me.

Lava Monsters 2.2 : Beings of lava may be encountered deep within the bowels of the earth.

Special Mobs 2.4.2 : Original Minecraft monsters have a small chance of spawning as an even less pleasant variant.

Project Zulu 1.0.3.9 by CrudeDragos: A fine range of extra animals and monsters, along with a number of extra world structures.

Rancraft Penguins 1.5.2.m.2 : Because Penguins!!!

Mo Creatures 5.2.3 : The latest version of Dr Zhark and Bloodshot 42’s Mo Creatures is far more compatible than previous versions were. It requires some config-fiddling, but I’ve now got it working well enough to include. A good thing, as the rich variety of animals and monsters that it adds would have been tough to miss out on.

Chococraft 2.8.7 by Torojima : I love chocobo! They’re happiness in avian form. With Chococraft you can not only spy them in the wild, but also tame, ride, and breed them.

Goblins 4.2 by Sartharis : Who doesn’t love battling goblins? This mod adds goblin campsites and villages to the world, along with some new recipes for the interesting ingredients you’ll find.

Primitive Mobs 1.4 by Daveyx : Some new opponents, but also a few new friendly faces in the form of additional villagers.

Magic!

Thaumcraft 3.05h by Azanor: This is the mod I was waiting for before I began this playthrough, as it contains worldgen components. Thaumcraft has a rich magic system based upon magical nodes which occur in the world. There are 50 types of magical aspect (such as life, death, fire, and so on), and everything in the world can be broken down into some combination of them, and used to fuel magical effects.

Ars Magica 5.52.013 by Mithion: Adds a complete magic system, strange beasts, and mysterious structures to explore.

Thaumic Tinkerer 1.07 by Vazkii: This Thaumcraft add-on extends your Thaumonomicon with even more wondrous feats of eldritch prowess.

Utility Mobs 2.0.1 by Father Toast: Brings us new turrets and golems with which to defend our homes, as well as the incredibly useful block golems. I’m a big fan of bringing a chest golem along on trips where my inventory is likely to get full.

Technology and Science

I didn’t want to go too overboard with the fancy engineering-type mods, as this playthrough is all about the magic. Still, sometimes even a wizard can find technology handy.

Buildcraft 3.7.1 maintained by CovertJaguar: This adds a variety of building and power additions. Pipes can be used to channel resources from one machine to another. Its energy system is a pre-req for many other mods, so it’s pretty much a must-have, even for somebody not known for their building such as myself. Largely, I need it for Forestry.

Thermal Expansion 2.4.6.0 : A wide-ranging Buildcraft add-on which brings in Buildcraft energy powered furnaces, pulverizers, and many more.

Industrialcraft 1.116.375: A rival energy system to Buildcraft, with a similar variety of machinery. What made me decide to add it was, in fact, its tappable rubber trees!

Railcraft 7.3.0.0 by CovertJaguar : A major expansion to carts and tracks that also has a lot of equipment that crosses over with Buildcraft and Industrialcraft.

Fossils and Archaeology Revival 5.1 : Hunt ancient relics and fossils, and harvest the DNA within to grow your very own dinosaurs!

Bees!

Forestry 2.2.8.3 by Sir Sengir: This adds a variety of automated and manual farms, powered by Buildcraft energy. But I don’t care about automated farms. I care about the BEES!!!! Forestry adds an entire sub-game of bee-breeding, and once you have your bees, you can cross-pollinate your trees to create new species. Both bees and trees use a Mendelian genetics model that I am going to have a great deal of fun with! The bees and trees produce fruit and honey, alongside somewhat more surprising products.

Extra Bees and Extra Trees 1.7.0b by Binnie: Adds further genetic diversity to our buzzing friends, along with some more machinery. Now includes Extra Trees, for more Mendelian meddling than ever before.

Magic Bees 2.1.0 by MysteriousAges: Magic bees! Formerly called “Thaumic Bees”, this is a crossover mod between Thaumcraft, Ars Magica and Forestry, adding bee-lines which can produce Thaumcraft and Ars Magica ingredients, as well as new hives to the Overworld, Nether, and End.

And more!

Tinker’s Construct 1.4.dev12 : Introduces an alternate crafting and enchanting system. This is additional, rather than replacing the vanilla one, and an item cannot be enchanted by both systems, so hopefully it’s pretty balanced. I’ve turned off most of its ore changes, preferring to let Metallurgy deal with it, but it will add Aluminium, Cobalt, and Ardite.

Ropes+ : This caught my eye as it adds recipes to create grappling hooks, allowing me to get my Batman on. Expect many falling deaths.

Sophisticated Wolves 2.1.3 : Improves the AI of tamed wolves, and changes how you breed them.

Household Gods 6.26.2013 by ThisGuyIsJoe: Statues of gods appear in the world, composed of a random selection of a leg, torso, and head piece. Together, those pieces form a language of sorts, and the magical effect the statue will have depends upon the combination. With 4096 possible combinations, pretty much anything could happen. You can also disassemble the statues and make your own out of the parts you’ve discovered. With this mod’s capacity for extremely powerful effects, both good and bad, I’ve made the statues very rare.

Aquaculture 1.2.2 by Shadowclaimer and Rebel Keithy : A fishing expansion that adds biome-specific fish, as well as the chance of fishing up forgotten treasures. Start your leather boot collection today!

On My Shelf

I’m waiting for these mods to be updated to Minecraft 1.5.2.

I’ll try to add Aether 2 to this build, just as soon as they release a version for 1.5.2.

My Magical Modded Misadventure

The reason I collected all these mods together is for a modded Let’s Play series. If you want to see them in action, why not take a peek?

The entire Magical Modded Misadventure Playlist

28 comments to My Adventuring with Ark Minecraft Build – 7th July Update.

  • Frank

    Wow, quite a list you’ve got there! Sounds fun!

  • Scott

    Can you release your set of mods and config files as a mod pack so we the viewers could either play along and/or perhaps get a world download once in a while. This sounds like a very fun set of mods.

    Good Luck, I’m off to check out the vids now!

    • I won’t be releasing a mod pack. They require author permissions, and are entirely too much work to keep up to date. And I’d have to do tech support, which is a world of unfun. Folks are much better off downloading mods separately, rather than having a fixed bag of mods dropped on them.

      However, I think it would probably be alright for me to provide my config files at some point, which would be enough to get everything (that I use) working together just by dropping them into your config folder.

      I might also write some guides on getting mods working. Documentation in that department is pretty weak, so far as I’ve seen.

      I’ve not started doing the new videos yet. Those ones currently up are from the dark days of alpha I think.

  • MineAddict

    I’m glad I’m not the only one with a serious mod habit, haha! I always look at my bloated mod folder and think – okay, I need to cull these. Five mods, and no more. Well, I can’t do without Thaumcraft and MineFantasy. And I need Growthcraft or my brewery and vineyards will look pathetic. Gravestones is useful /and/ deadly fun. Fireplace is /essential/ as I’m always setting my house on fire with netherrack… need the Furniture mod of course… Mo’Creatures… Carpenter’s Slopes… Timber! …Bibliocraft …Harvestcraft …Backpacks …aw dammit, I’ll just keep them all.

  • Dulciphi

    Uh.. I was actually trying to think of a less-than-imprudent way to ask if you’d care to share your configs as well. I’d so love to play the “pack of mods” you’ve got going there. It takes a lot of work, time, effort, frustration, genius and just plain self-loathing to get that many mods all playing nicely together and.. well it seems kind of silly for everyone to be going through the same frustrating process. A bit like something cooked up in the department of redundancy department, so to say. So, to say I’d be willing to donate to help make your time worthwhile – to make my time more worthwhile – would be an understatement. …if you understand my statement?

    • No problem. I’ve zipped them up and popped them at (Outdated link)

      They’re just my configs, set how I like them, so you’ll likely want to tweak. But the IDs don’t clash within the set of mods that I use.

      Edit: Please note, people who see this comment in 3 months/years time, that those configs were for the build as it stood on the day the comment was posted!

  • Dulciphi

    Oh wow.. that’s.. no, that is so much further than I’ve been able to get in months that I’m kind of lost for words. This is literally worth weeks of my time. I shall sacrifice many creepers in your name, Sir Arkenor *bows*.

  • Dulciphi

    Goodness I should’ve realised I could follow this for updates as well. I was lagging behind with Metallurgy so I’ve just clicked to update that. Thank you for keeping your lists here up to date. It helps me keep updated too.

  • MapleBacon

    Could you update the config Ark? I’m really starting to like your setup over mine.

    • Sure! I’ll knock something up in the next few days. I need to make sure this page has exactly the same mod versions as the configs I put up, and I’m a little out of synch right now. Need to make sure things work properly before I go inflicting them on anyone else!

      • MapleBacon

        Very considerate of you, man.

        • Here you go. (~Edit: File removed as obsolete.)

          That’s for the mod versions listed as of June 19th. As I said before, they’re set up to my liking, and may well need some tweaking for anyone else’s tastes.

          • MapleBacon

            Man, that was quick. I might only change some of your biome settings since you have them set for Ages. Thanks Ark!

  • Dulciphi

    Big thank you again. It’s great to be able to watch and then play along.

  • Dulciphi

    Aquaculture?! Sounds cool. I might have put my plans for my first Forestry farm on hold while I check out these changes. Cheers

  • MapleBacon

    There’s mods in your config that aren’t included here, FYI. Like Taverns. Were they removed?

    • They’re usually ones I’m testing for stability and such. I don’t put a mod up here the moment I add it to my build, in case it turns out to bring doom down upon us all!!

  • MapleBacon

    Ah, it’s just caution then.

  • MapleBacon

    Could you updat your configs in the near-future? I’ll be your best friend :D

    • Sure. There’s a few bits and pieces I want to sort out regarding extending modded biomes, but I’ll get something out in a day or so.

      • Righto, here it is. My current 1.5.2 config files. : https://www.dropbox.com/s/5trj80qxhl0tcv2/Ark%27s%20Config%20Pack%20v3.zip

        Apart from configs for mods that have been added or updated since I last put them up, I’ve also gotten around to configuring the Ruins mod for BOP and EBXL biomes. Needed to get that done before I go off into Mystcraft ages.

        Usual caveats apply. These are set up according to my whims and purposes, and anyone else should take the time to make sure settings are the way they want them. IDs will not conflict with any other mod within the set, but of course they can and will be able to conflict with mods outside that set, without further editing.

        They’re provided as a courtesy for the good folks who enjoy my videos and want to play along. They’re just configs set up to avoid ID conflicts, and you’ll need the full mods. I strongly suggest you download them from the official threads and websites of the mod-creators linked to in this post, rather than one of the countless other websites that post files of dubious provenance.

        • MapleBacon

          Glad to be one of the “Good folks”, and once I nab your configs, I’ll use NEI to export IDs so that when I add new mods, i know what IDs are free. I add mods like Herblore, Necromancy, Taverns, and more to make my village more diverse, and I’d like to try an AI revamp mod for villagers. I also add more tech mods into the mix, but i try not to stray too far off the RPG theme. Dimensional Doors is a fun add, as well.

          Oh, and the new update of Fossils/Archeology (Why did you label it under “Bees”?) includes an archeologist villager. Neat!

  • Dulciphi

    hmm. I’m a little lost. I notice you’re using Mystcraft 0.10.5 and I can see that version exists by this post here http://binarymage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=340&sid=22803719c418e4fb70c27ca6a1f0e63c&start=10 ..but I can’t find anywhere to download it. I’m still using 0.10.4 and would like to update before I go skipping off to other worlds.

  • Saryia

    Hey there,

    I was wondering – when you installed Mo Creatures, didn’t you have any difficulty with Mo creatures not spawning your other mods’ creatures, or not filtering it by Biome? I’ve been playing around with it a lot, and I saw that in Mo Creatures an “undefined” section turns up with creatures it doesn’t know how to deal with. And not all mods tell you what/how things should be spawning. Any advice on how it interacts with the others would be great :)

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